0:04 - Welcome to Wednesday Night Live
21:03 - The Tucker Carlson Controversy
38:35 - The Importance of Truth
49:39 - Standards and Morality
1:25:48 - The Case for Free Speech
1:40:52 - Closing Thoughts and Farewell
In this episode, we delve into the dynamics of conversation, free speech, and the philosophical implications of honesty in personal relationships. Our discussion begins with observations surrounding the recent Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz conversation, highlighting the challenges of navigating public discourse without losing sight of reason and evidence. We examine moments of rhetorical manipulation and the frustration that comes from the avoidance of fundamental truths in political dialogues.
As we transition into questions from the audience, I reflect on the necessity for accountability in political discussions, particularly regarding disastrous policies in areas like Iraq and Afghanistan. The discourse on personal responsibility emerges: how can one reconcile the consequences of their actions with a moral framework? I share my own struggles with accountability in my work and the painful memories of miscalculated decisions, drawing a parallel between personal errors and the broader missteps of public figures.
Our conversation further explores the nature of consciousness and artificial intelligence, where I argue that true human creativity and reason remain irreplaceable, while also acknowledging the threat that AI poses to those who merely replicate existing narratives without independent thought. I note that while AI can transform many job markets, those who engage thoughtfully and creatively in their work may find themselves increasingly vital in the evolving landscape.
Throughout the episode, I express a desire for open and honest communication as a cornerstone of healthy relationships. The call to "tell the truth" resonates deeply, with personal anecdotes describing the emotional toll of lying or withholding feelings from loved ones. I share stories from my experiences, emphasizing the long-term psychological damage that can stem from unresolved familial conflicts.
As we conclude, I discuss my recent decision to return to X (formerly Twitter) and the rationale behind it. I present my daughter's argument for my reintegration into the platform, stressing the need to reassess our expectations of accountability when dealing with large organizations. The episode wraps up with a spirited exchange about the importance of community engagement, asking listeners about their experiences with honesty in relationships and the personal journeys they’ve embarked upon to communicate their truths.
Ultimately, this episode serves as a reminder of the fragile nature of relationships when honesty is absent and the relentless pursuit of truth as both a philosophical ideal and a practical necessity in personal interactions.
[0:00] Hello, welcome to your Wednesday Night Live.
[0:04] It is the 18th of June, 2025, and we are reasoning from first principles to our last breath. Our last breath. Audio sounds better here than X. Well, I don't really know what to do about that, but I appreciate the feedback. It's always good to know when things are working or not. So thank you. Thank you for that. All right, let's see here. Let us make sure that we have our chitty chants over there on the X-O-Rama. It is good to be back as a whole. Sopanta says, good evening, everyone seeing you here on X is going to take some getting used to, Stef, LOL. Well, it used to be my X account. Now it's my ex-account oh you know my daughter is not at home at the moment and so uh you get the glorious dad jokes that normally only she well and my wife and our friends and their kids and so on get to enjoy you just get them so again i know i'm off politics this is more about rhetoric he said rhetorically. But I will say this.
[1:23] Well, no, let me ask you this question. Did you see the Tucker Carlson Ted Cruz conversation? Oh, man. Talk about ungreased dildos straight to the ear canal. Holy crap. That was something else. Hit me with a why if you'd like a few thoughts about that.
[1:42] I'm just here. You can type it there. Hit me with a why. I couldn't make it through the whole thing, because there's only a certain amount of rhetorical reaming that I can take before I start to walk bowlegged, and horses don't want to let me ride them anymore. So hit me with a why if you would like at all, even a slightly little bit of...
[2:04] Thoughts on that you haven't is it worth watching I think it is worth watching as a whole I would say it's worth watching as a whole but you've got to keep your wits about you because of course it is a tad on the horrifying side when it comes to reason and evidence it's not really the fault of either participant I did the truth about Ted Cruz many years ago and I enjoyed Tucker Carlson's last book but uh i will i will say that the amount of dodging and bobbing and weaving and avoidance of the patently obvious is really something it's a nice hat isn't it i wear it because i don't put a logo on so there's my my logo and it's not like anybody needs more of my four six eight head uh in their feet it's a whole wow so yes the pink ostrich bowling ball of philosophy is there.
[2:59] It's a very nice hat hello gungan hello everybody uh jared says i've been listening to peaceful parenting again to figure out how to phrase the contradictions of the parents of my girlfriend powerful stuff yes i liked hearing tucker push back on ted's nonsense um i understand i think that's interesting i even agree to it to some degree but they're both working in such a narrow and constrained area that it is it is something else and a half hello standing plane nice to uh nice to see you nice to see you i appreciate that so uh with regards to the conversation as a whole.
[3:44] I don't know man there's there's stuff that's just kind of blindingly obvious that that people just refuse to talk about as a whole. And it does get a little maddening to see people dance around it. I'm not sure that Genesis should be informing public policy. I'm just not sure about that. If you're going to start taking stuff from the Bible as your politics, it seems to me a little bit of a narrowing of the separation of church and state, and then you're going to have to figure out how to better treat your slaves. And, you know, some of the other stuff in particular that's in the Old Testament that is not massively sanitary to modern sensibility, so to speak.
[4:22] But it does seem interesting. So yes, I think it's worth having a look. It's interesting seeing somebody hold somebody else's feet to the fire. And there is a certain amount of gotcha that people kind of like to see, which I understand as well, because politicians rarely have the gotchas.
[4:41] But the one thing that I find really tough about those kinds of conversations, and Tucker does sort of point out about this, like, where's the accountability? You know, for people who supported disastrous policies, you know, like Iraq, like Afghanistan, like Libya in particular, turned from a relatively functioning, aiming for a gold-backed currency, semi-dictatorship, where at least some of the people were treated well, to a warlord-strewn, $400-a-head open-air slave market of the northern part of Africa. I mean, that's pretty bad. That's, you know, I don't know about you guys. I'm very sensitive to error i'm very sensitive to making a mistake and so because of that i feel bad if i make a mistake in a presentation which is why i get a little bit obsessive about about, getting things right if i make a typo i think i think so far i've been on x for two days no typos yet you know they're coming you know just lining up in the corridor but nothing yet, so I feel I feel pretty pretty bad about about that I mean I remember when I did a miscalculation once in business that cost my boss fifty thousand dollars I said hey man just take it out of my salary I feel bad and he was nice and didn't but.
[6:05] People can support the most appalling catastrophes in the world, and you can go back and look at my presentation. I remember being on, I won't say, I remember being on Abby Martin, but I remember being on her show many years ago. I did a show called Iraq, A Decade of Hell, which was talking about the genetic destruction of significant portions of the Iraqi population, particularly in the areas around and within Fallujah, because of these depleted uranium weapons that are armor-piercing and just this is going to be i mean there are still people in um vietnam that are dealing with the genetic defects caused by agent orange that is something else man and so i feel and maybe this is just a you know high-strung british guy sort of gorgon-like conscience i got a conscience like a hydra or like tiamat and i mean it's a good guide you know if i'm pleasing my conscience all is well with the world if I'm not pleased with my conscience nothing is well with me and it's it's a stern taskmaster a stern taskmaster but a very great friend when it's on your side and I.
[7:13] I remember when I was younger I'm like well you know listening to your conscience I can listen to it later you know I could just enjoy myself now and listen to it later uh that doesn't work out very well the longer you avoid your conscience the worse the blowback is you know if you ever gone hiking with people like through thick brush and of course I worked up north gold panning and prospecting so I did this with people I worked with all the time you know they're they're walking ahead and they're like.
[7:38] They're pushing all of the tree limbs out of the way and it's all of that potential energy which turns into whapping the eyeball kinetic energy because they walk forward and all the tree limbs go back on you like this uh scything there's there's a i remember when i was in africa there was a a set of bushes basically called wait a moment because they hook in and if you try to back out the hooks all go in like those barbed arrows you have to push through the body rather than pull out and oh man that that conscience stuff the the blowback the longer you ignore it is is bad and the blowback my own conscience blowback really hit me in my early 30s and I went through a severe bout of insomnia because I was asleep to the reality of the need to bring recent facts evidence and virtue to my actual personal relationships and heaven help me my business relationships and i got a whole novel about this called the god of atheists i hope you'll check it out it's free free falling all right so uh let me just get to your questions and uh.
[8:44] Comments issues and problems whatever is on your mind i really did.
[8:46] Enjoy the twitter spaces it was great having those debates with people and all of that kind of stuff now i'm trying to figure out the chat here with regards to x why I hit the refresh and I just get like a couple of people I've got it on the pop out and I only see two comments and I know that that's not really what's going on with x so I suppose I will just have to try let me just try refreshing the x thing it shouldn't have any effect on the live stream itself just to see if I can see what might be going on i'd like to get the questions from there only two and i just saw more before i refreshed it so uh i suppose uh please reset if you have not uh right thank you david for reposting the stream i appreciate that i do appreciate that i do love how young i am that my return to x has produced a not small number of gandalf memes because uh and it's funny because i think that the guy who played a gandalf ian mckellen was about the same age when he played gandalf as tom cruise is now you know tom cruise who apparently just lives in massive sit-up based cryogenic chambers between movies it's uh it's pretty wild it's pretty wild.
[10:15] All right. Let me get to your questions and comments. Thank you, says Shelby. I appreciate the tip. Thank you for the valuable work you've been doing all these years. You've been instrumental in helping me heal from the trauma I experienced in my childhood. I'm very, very thankful that you tell me that, and I really do appreciate that, and please accept my very deepest sympathies for what happened on your um in your childhood it's very very sad very sad oh somebody doesn't tim doesn't see the chat either is it is it not just me let me try try to reload here sorry i don't mean to bore everyone with technical stuff but uh have you heard anything back from youtube as yet i have not.
[11:01] I have not and i just wanted to mention just wanted to mention that since i've got my account restored like to all the people who were offering me absurd amounts of money to post something a i don't know if it's valid or not and b uh i don't i don't do ads i don't do ads i mean it's a fair amount of cash to be dangling in front of me but um i you know i i hate to sort of say say it this way but i wish i was more tempted by stuff like that um i don't care too much for money money can't buy my truth so i would say that i don't the pop-out looks like it basically resists yeah it's not particularly tempting for me uh let me see here should i advertise riposte okay so if i if i close this pop-out and go back just to yeah so i mean people offer me stuff and um i don't you know i've got enough to eat i've got a roof over my head and a decent camera so You don't see the chat either?
[11:59] Yeah, it's very strange. Very strange. And so, all right, let me just get to see if there are comments here, there, or everywhere.
[12:17] You can't comment on the live is that right excellent i mean i can't imagine i'm here for two days and i'm being suppressed already that would be um all right so let's see here, thoughts on agi or super intelligence will it destroy us or governments first so, i have a little bit of a view into artificial intelligence because i know leftists and also, as a computer programmer myself, I mean, I first started programming when I was 11, and I did it for a living, really, up until my early 30s, well, with a break for theater school and graduate school and so on, although I even did some programming there. And computers can't think. They can't think. They can't reason. They can't dream. They don't have ambitions.
[13:10] AI, massively impressive. The technology is amazing. And for research, it's, I mean, gosh, I wish I had AI back in the days of the truth about, you know, and just cranking out one of those or two of those a week because those took days and days and days and days and days to put together. Now, I know that AI hallucinates and so on, but AI is not going to compete with human beings. It is going to compete with NPCs because NPCs are programmed. So the human beings who are programmed by propaganda, the NPCs who are programmed by the media the npcs who are programmed by emotional avoidance right so you know reactive people like you bring up some kind of truth and they get really upset and angry the people who are programmed to be reactive to act out those people are going to be replaced by ai but people who think originally creatively and it's not like an iq thing you can think creatively and originally without being smart super smart or anything like that but those people are not going to be replaced by ai so the less you think the more replaceable you are and the people who just repeat what the media tells them as if it's their own thoughts they're totally going to be replaced if you're programmable as most people are just programmable just do what the culture tells you do what the media tells you you seek out advantage and you avoid negatives so if you.
[14:34] You are programmable, then AI, which is programmable, will replace you. And so you've got to start adding value through originality, and then that's the best way to hang on to your job. But no, I don't think that AI will destroy us. I think that AI, as I talked about in the Twitter spaces, AI in combination with government power is pretty dangerous. All right. Paul says, you're an ad for the betterment of the human race. Your StefBot AI helped me with the path forward after the Bas-Aquids path, or the Bas-Bakids path. We found ourselves on the past five years. Where do we go from here? Lecture. Oh, good. I'm very, very glad for that. And of course, if you are on X or wherever, if you could repost the stream, I would be thrilled if you would do that. It would be very helpful. and I imagine it's going to be helpful to philosophy as a whole. So, sorry, somebody just posted, let's do this. La, babe, life. Now that the day is over. All right, save that. These are jobs estimated to be reduced by AI. I'm actually working on this on my latest novel, that there is a woman who is a secretary and this is the kind of stuff that absolutely will be replaced by AI. All right, so what have we got here?
[16:00] Within five years by 2030 estimated percentage of tasks automatable or risk a full job replacement data entry keyers 80 to 95 percent cashiers 75 to 90 percent office clerks 70 to 85 percent bookkeeping clerks 70 to 85 percent customer service representatives 70 to 85 percent telemarketers 65 to 80 percent retail salespersons really okay uh 60 to 75 percent, I mean, stuff that requires a body, which retail sales workers do, would seem to me less likely to be replaced. But maybe they're talking about robots or maybe they're just talking about cashiers. But no, that would be in the higher category. Fast food workers, 60 to 75 percent. Paralegals and legal assistants, 60 to 75 percent. Assembly line workers, 55 to 70 percent. Sales reps, 55 to 70 percent. Delivery drivers, 50 to 70. Truck drivers, 50 to 70. Market research analysts, 50 to 65. Manufacturing workers 50 to 65 accounting clerks 50 to 65 fire clerks 50 to 65 postal service clerks 45 to 60 journalists.
[17:05] The ultimate brain programmers 45 to 60 percent also one of the um one of the professions which ranks highest in sociopathy, and addiction uh bank tellers 45 to 60 travel agents 45 to 60 man a travel agent still a thing graphics designers 40 to 55 percent right right yeah that makes that makes sense, that tracks as they as they say thank you very much so.
[17:40] Am i set up for subscriptions on x no because i wasn't on x for quite some time and i need five million impressions over the last uh three months and of course because i wasn't posting i I had virtually no impressions, but that is changing rapidly. We've had a little bit of a spike. And so, yeah, that is changing quite a bit. All right, let me just refresh this. All right, but it's nice to see a quarter million people or so have viewed my request for YouTube.
[18:17] Most people in the fiction space are afraid of AI, but that's because they write slop anyway. Yes, that is very true.
[18:27] I'm writing a novel about very cruel people, and I've known some cruel people. Okay, let me ask you this.
[18:35] Write to me the number of cruel people you've had at some relative closeness in your life not just someone you met at a party who was mean but i'm trying to think for myself it probably would be, i think six i think six cruel people i've known in my life but i'm just curious how many people like the people and you don't need a huge definition of cruel you're very sort of smart group of people but uh you know people who giggle when other people get hurt they uh they do a lot of this uh insults and hey man i was only joking and haha and they're just constantly unsettling to be around because you never know where they're coming from and they don't have any particular empathy and everything's kind of kind of a joke so i'm just curious what what number because i'm writing and drawing upon some of the people that i've known over the course of my life i'm writing a novel about really a couple of really cruel people and it's it's wild man it is wild let's see here so i said six miller said 30 kevin said maybe a couple dozen work and personal miller says oh yeah way too many yeah 30 is a lot man 30 is a lot i mean i have the, luxury slash well-earned situation where i of course uh yeah work from home although i'm getting invited places now i'm not sure whether i'll go or not but i'm i'm getting invited places now uh maybe i've maybe i've done my time in the wilderness maybe not it's really hard to say.
[20:00] Uh five or six four chris only seen one.
[20:06] Uh three okay, Your rugged good looks are criminal. Thank you. I appreciate that. Not earned, although mildly maintained with decent exercise. I did 45 minutes of waits right before the show tonight.
[20:28] All right. Computers can't break up fights or stop shoplifters, so security guards say for now, bio robots to their employer. Yeah, for sure. Well, and of course, as there are computers coming in, the remaining workers will be paid less because of the competition, right? Hey, Stef, what do you think about Canada becoming the 51st state? Yeah, that's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Canada has, in general, a highly resentful younger sibling relationship to the United States.
[21:03] So I would say not likely not likely at all, alright I have let's see here, let me just get to my bookie bookmarks there we go.
[21:33] Yeah, there was an interesting, because I'm back on X, I won't call them trolls because that's a little bit too easy. And it's actually been troll free almost exclusively. But there was an interesting interaction. And I do this because I think it's instructive on how to challenge people who say you're wrong. Look, I don't want to be wrong. You know if if i think i put sunscreen on my back i'm on the beach or something like that which i very rarely go to but if i put sunscreen on my back and i missed a spot do i want my wife to say, hey i think you missed a spot you got like a red bit on your back well of course if i met i oh i think i i think about the sunscreen on my back i missed i want because i don't want a little flaming spot of you know whatever right on my on my back so i want people to tell me if i've made a mistake right if i'm if i'm at the gym and i'm doing something incorrectly i want someone to say hey you should do it this way not that way so that i don't pull the muscle because you know uh i was at a cafe uh the other day working on my novel and i have i have a it's not exactly a fetish but it's a deep and abiding interest when i see an injury in public not someone getting injured but somebody you know they're on a uh they're on crutches or something like that hobbling around.
[22:59] I just I have to know the backstory I just I just have to know the backstory and I would just ask people hey what happened and I find people are generally in general are very sort of keen to talk about it but I was talking to this guy and he was he had broken his ankle and in a sport and oh when did it happen what's the prognosis how you're feeling and how long till healing and all that kind of stuff and i just i always want to know i i want to know the backstory for everyone like whenever my daughter and i go to like say a farmer's market or a renaissance fair i want to go there like with a camera crew i want to go to a renaissance fair with a camera crew for instance and just ask everyone how why are you here how did you not like it's a bad place to be there a lot of fun but it's a kind of wild half circus subculture why are you getting up at five in the morning to sell pretend armor like that's just a fascinating thing i want to know everyone's backstories how did you end up and that's why for me when i get to do these call-in shows uh yeah i think of the number of you know hundreds of people i've asked over the years you know what was your first memory and i know.
[24:08] People I never would have met, I now know their first memory, and now so does the whole world. Backstories to me are completely fascinating. But anyway, so I was talking to this guy in the cafe, and he's like, oh yeah, I'll be better in like five weeks. And I'm like, bro, you broke your whole ankle. Like if I broke my whole ankle, I mean, I remember when I was in St. Louis chasing my daughter as a monster down the hallway, and I was in new sneakers, and I hit some tile, and my leg just went down because it kind of stuck like glued there. I banged my knee, man. I went to physio people. Physio people are mostly just made-up stuff, right? You know, oh, ear of newt and a couple of lizard hearts and punch yourself in the spleen three times with some knuckle dusters and you'll be fine. Everything they gave me was completely useless and I went to two or three of them. A complete waste of time and money and so on. I just found out that I just had to dig in and massage. For me, if I injure something that's taking a while to heal it's always because i'm not massaging the correct thing it's some completely non-intuitive thing you know like oh it's your if you've got a pain in your knee it's your right elbow it's just making things up right but it's always like some bizarre thing that doesn't make any sense that loosens it up and so but it took like 10 months before i sort of figured all of that out and i was just like oh you're 25 you're gonna heal before you know it but you don't want to get these kinds of things in your 50s because then the healing is not quite as snappy, not quite as snappy.
[25:38] So yeah, I mean, if I'm lifting something incorrectly, if I'm skiing badly, if I, whatever, oh, I haven't been skiing in years, but I just, just tell me so I don't hurt myself. I want to be corrected. So I like to be corrected, but let me ask you this. Here's another audience participation question. Let me ask you this. What percentage of people, let's just say online, what percentage of people online want to correct you in good faith? In other words, hey, you know, you're making an error, I want to help, and here's a better argument, or here's where I think you went astray, or something like that, what percentage of people online are correcting you in good faith? And that is...
[26:38] Always an interesting question. Less than 5%. Is that what you're saying? Less than 5%? It's not as common as it should be. It absolutely is not as common as it should be. About 2% to 5%. I'm optimistic enough to say a whole 5%.
[26:54] How does it feel to play stadiums again? Feels the same as before? No. I remember Mick Jagger saying, you know, if you're playing a nightclub, it's very different from playing a stadium. It's a whole different focus and energy. So it's a little bit more. Joe says 10%, 10% of people online are correcting you in good faith. All right. I appreciate that. That's good to know. I was going to say to the people on X, let me know if you can't post a message. Kevin says 20%. Nice. Nice. 3% of my real audience, 80% of strangers, perhaps. Oh, of my real audience, 80%. Of strangers, perhaps 2%. Okay, okay. So to me, it's always interesting to know whether or not people are correcting you in good faith. If they're not correcting you in good faith, I mean, you can say they could have a good argument even if they're malicious. I mean, that's true. Technically, technically, technically it's true. But you could also jump out of a plane and land without injury some way right but don't do it right technically you can win the lottery but don't play the lottery it's just attacks on mathematical ignorance so.
[28:15] I, once I have established a lack of good faith, I'm out. You can't heal people who manipulate in that kind of way. You can't fix them and you're not going to get anything valuable out of them. And maybe you feel like, oh, if I expose this person, then other people will see. But that's not your job. That's not your sort of service.
[28:40] Other people are saying 2% to 5%, 10%. Somebody says 25%, but I spend a lot of my time on technical message boards. Yeah, that's fair. Technical message boards for sure. So on Reddit, none. Yeah, that's probably quite true. That's probably quite true. Putting the commie red in Reddit. So I posted a request for YouTube to restore my YouTube channel. Um and and somebody wrote uh this dude helped to rip apart so many families and relationships.
[29:16] Right and i said spreading malicious rumors is a sin my friend because you know that is a malicious rumor and there's no evidence and it's just my my me podcasting me doing some videos me writing some books has torn apart uh so many families and relationships um, I don't see how that would particularly follow, but there's no, there's no example, right? So I said, spreading malicious rumors is a sin, my friend. And he said, not sure why you would invoke fairytale concepts. So boom, right? You know, you know, atheist, right? You know, atheist. And Fedora, where are you? And well, actually, right? I mean, you just, you just know. And this is what I said on the stream the other day on the Twitter spaces. Are you still an atheist? I'm like, well, I can't stand atheists for the most part, you know, present company accepted if you're an atheist. I mean, you're into philosophy, but so he has no basis for his morality. It's really, really important to understand. Atheists outside of UPB, outside of universally preferred behavior, atheists have no, none, zero basis for their morality.
[30:31] Zero. It's all vague Darwinian in-group preference evolution, although they don't accept in-group preferences in certain groups. It's all the greatest good for the greatest number. That's just a mealy-mouthed avoidance of the actual question or the actual issue. It's all, oh, generic, being nice and being good and doing good for you. There's no basis. If you don't believe in God, your morality becomes rank superstition, which is much worse. Much worse.
[31:09] Religious people have a basis for their morality. Universal objective, not rational. It's religious faith, right? Not reason. But the moment somebody says, I'm an atheist, again, UPB is not spread like wildfire, I guess like wildfire in a heavy rain of anti-morality, but it's really... So the moment somebody says sin is a fairytale concept, he's saying there's no such thing as sin, which is obviously immoral behavior, so there's no such thing as immoral behavior. So if there's no such thing as immoral behavior, why would he criticize me? No such thing as immoral behavior. Oh, it feels bad. No, that's just hedonism on the other side of the coin. No, when you talk to atheists, they've got nothing, nothing behind their moral pronouncements. It's all manipulation and feels and conformity and cross-your-fingers wishful thinking bullshit. Bullshit.
[32:25] So, there's no such thing as good and bad, right and wrong But apparently ripping apart people's families is bad, whatever that means, And.
[32:43] There's no morals So, he says, not sure why you would invoke fairytale concepts Now, the word sin, to me, is something that your conscience will get you on, that you claim is universal, but use for your own advantage, right? So, he said, your entire shtick for a while, so there are certain NPC words, right, that you just know. Grifter, of course, is one of them, and shtick. Also when people use inappropriate quote friendly nicknames like steffy molly meme i'm sort of torn on because you know it's become a meme of its own so i don't consider it particularly malicious, so your entire shtick that shtick is not an argument for a while was about convincing people to cut ties and relationships with those around them that you would perceive to be quote toxic this isn't a rumor, Andrew Wilson thank you chimed in so good advice so convincing people to cut ties in relationships with those around them that you would perceive to be toxic and.
[33:59] So, the analogy I used many years ago was, if you think that a bridge, like I say you've got a little footbridge over a stream, right? A little footbridge over a stream. And you say, this footbridge is solid and firm and strong. And I say, well, then you should walk over it because you don't want to get wet or muddy or whatever. And then you walk over it and the footbridge collapses are you mad at me hey man you made me go on this footbridge no it didn't you said the footbridge was strong i don't want you to get muddy and wet so go walk on the footbridge so what did i say to people, back in the day, for many years, which I absolutely would still say today.
[34:57] It's a triple T.
[35:01] Standard English afternoon, a triple T. Tell the truth. Oh, you thought I was going to go up there, didn't you? So did I, but no. Tell the truth. That's all I said. people say, well, my father did this wrong. My mother did this wrong. I was really angry about this. I'm really upset. Tell them the truth. Sit down with them and tell them what your problems are. Tell them what your criticisms are. Tell them what your issues are. Don't be in a relationship and lie your ass off. And I say that with great sympathy. Don't be in a relationship and lie your ass off. That is dishonorable to you. It's dishonorable to the other person. And lying in your primary relationships has massive negative effects on your heart, mind, conscience, your soul, for want of a better word. Don't lie in your primary relationships. Don't put on a fake smile. Don't pretend things are fine when you're angry. Communicate. Be honest, open, direct with people in your life.
[36:03] So people would go and talk to their parents and if it was parents right could be husband wife in parents this is a typical thing right now if telling people go and talk to your parents about what's bothering you how would how would that be to rip apart families families are already apart like they're already apart, if people aren't talking about what they think and feel.
[36:32] There is no connection. If you're in a family situation and you're biting your tongue, you're dissociating, you're not being honest, you're just being run over by the other person's indifference and avoidance and gaslighting, you don't exist. You're like a ghost. Go and be honest and tell the truth. I mean, it's like the Robin Williams genie in Aladdin, just tell the truth, triple T. Forgive me, Father, for I was raised, raised, raised, raised. Almost whipped up with the commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not bear false witness. What was I always told as a child? What were you always told as a child? Tell the truth. Tell the truth. Be honest. Don't lie.
[37:29] I mean, do me this. Do me this. Hit me with a why if you were punished as a child for lying either directly or indirectly. Hit me with a why if you were punished either in school or in church, extended family, in your family, wherever. Were you punished for lying? I mean, I was. I was punished for lying. And I was told to tell the truth. Wasn't complicated be honest be honest.
[38:11] And i was told that i had to be responsible for my own decisions i couldn't ever say well the other kids were doing it because you'd always get the same response in america it's a brooklyn bridge here in canada as well if all the other kids were jumping off the cn tower would you do that too think for yourself don't blame others tell the truth you are responsible for your own decisions, you can't blame others. That's what I was told. That's what I was raised with.
[38:35] Oh, yeah, the parents who say, I won't be mad if you tell the truth.
[38:49] Right. Right. You know, if society didn't want me to promote the truth, maybe society should have shut the F up in demanding and insisting that I tell the truth. Maybe I shouldn't have been caned as a little boy in boarding school for lying.
[39:16] I'm not mad. If you did something wrong, I'm only mad if you lie about it, right? Lying is worse than doing something wrong. Lying is the worst thing ever. Cheating is a form of lying, right? Pretending to have knowledge that you don't have. So this is the funny thing. Society is a very, very funny. I mean, at this point in my life, like I'm pushing 60, right? So at this point in my life, it's straight up comedic. Hello, Hedevra. Have a have a redevra i want to reach out in chevier okay i don't actually but society is a funny it's a funny place right because they give you all these moral rules.
[40:00] And they're absolute absolute moral rules so then i grow up i'm like oh okay so this is the moral rules that society lives by i better i better do these moral rules because man if those moral rules are strong and certain enough and society's absolutely certain about these moral rules to the point where they will beat children for disobeying these moral rules man that's absolute that's certainty right there baby 100 i'm like oh okay so you want me to tell the truth and i gotta think for myself so then i make a career out of telling the truth and thinking myself and when people say to me they come to me on the call-in shows or whatever however they're communicating with me and they say, I'm lying to my family. I'm upset, but I'm not telling them. I'm angry at my parents, but I'm not telling them. I have problems with my parents, but I'm not telling them. I feel distant from my parents, but I'm not telling them.
[40:54] So what do I say? I said the same thing. If it's safe, if it's safe, right? I mean, there were a few people who had very violent parents and that may not be safe. I said, look, if it's safe, then you should, you should talk to your parents. Tell them the truth about what you think and feel be honest be honest apparently it's a cult of, honesty right tell your parents how you feel i can't tell you like how awful it would be if my daughter was upset with me about something and didn't tell me for years i it would be, appalling i i would it would absolutely shatter my heart into its component not even atoms like electrons. Terrible.
[41:55] And telling people to go to their parents and tell the truth about what they think and feel is entirely in alignment with all of the morals that I was taught. Like when I was told, well, you shouldn't use violence to get what you want. If you want some kid's lunch, you shouldn't just push them into the mud and grab the lunch and run off giggling to the oak tree. Sorry, that may be a bit specific, but you know what I mean. Don't use violence to get what you want. And then I sort of noticed that society uses a lot of political violence to get what it wants. And I'm like, oh, well, I was told you shouldn't use violence to get what you want. So anyway, so I'm simply reflecting back to society the ethics that I was taught. But apparently, you see, society inflicts these ethics on children. But you sure as Sherlock better not try and put these morals into play when you become an adult. So morality is just an exercise of power, right? It's not anything to do with anything that people particularly believe. It's just an exercise in power. Okay? Well, at least that should be revealed so we don't have to take moral pronouncements.
[43:12] So if somebody said i was beaten with belt by my father i don't think it's my subjective i mean that's actually illegal in most places at least in the west so that would be a criminal act so i don't think beating a child or if you're a drug addict or an alcoholic or if you simply don't talk to your child if you just neglect your child and the child is just sitting up rotten in their room staring into the testes of Satan online.
[43:44] So I never told anyone to leave their family of course right so I just said you should be honest and you don't have to have relationships with people who are relentlessly abusive again exactly what I was taught as a kid because of course I grew up in the 70s the feminist movement and someone where women were never supposed to stay with abusive men ever these are men that women chose chose voluntarily you didn't choose your parents so anyway he says your entire shtick for a while was about convincing people to cut ties and relationships those around them that you would perceive to be toxic this isn't a rumor well it is in fact a rumor because you're just, taking the word of people who were negatively affected by radical honesty right you who gets mad at someone who tells their children as adults to be honest with them. I mean, I think we can all get the answer to that.
[44:43] And of course, I always suggested to people that it's important to engage with a therapist because, you know, especially if you have really volatile or aggressive, parents, then you want to have a good therapist on your side during the process. And if you can get family therapy, and I had parents write to me saying, you know, wow, my parents, I mean, my kids were really honest with me it really opened up things in the family but going to therapy things are way better i did a call-in show of at least i can't more than one but one parent that i can remember a mom who thanked me for all this kind of stuff so telling people to tell the truth apparently that's just really bad right so andrew wilson said so he said your entire state blah blah cut ties you would perceive to be quote toxic right so now it's all subjective right so good advice and he said in some circumstances sure not to the extent Stefan encouraged it though right okay so I was right sometimes but I went too far now just so you're aware just so you're aware.
[45:48] Going too far is not an argument. It's over. It's exaggerated. It's hyperbole. It's too much. It's too this. It's too that. Right? It's extremist. Right? None of that makes any sense. Right? I mean, the word extreme just appeals to NPCs who are blandly around the mean. Any extremes are bad. Right? I mean, if you're getting cured of cancer and the doctor says, I mean, this is an extreme cure. It'll absolutely wipe out the cancer. There'll be none left. It's extreme. It's like, that's what I want, right? I want an extreme cure. I don't want a moderate or somewhat or iffy, iffy, like, take it all out, right? Take it all out on extreme cure.
[46:31] So if he says, well, Stef was right, but he went too far. Again, maybe. Certainly an interesting thing, right? So then somebody wrote back to this guy, cool, so you agree that we should cut out toxic people. But what? It has to be to your personal standard? And he says, cool, so you agree that we should cut out toxic people? And the guy replied, perhaps, that depends on what you view as toxic. Okay, so he's saying it's subjective. So if he's saying it's subjective, then the people who listened to me, who went and confronted what they viewed as toxicity on the part of their parents say, they viewed it as toxic. So who is he to disagree with their subjective. See what I mean? There's no reality. There's no truth here. And the guy said, but what? It has to be to your personal standards. And he said, if you have to be told that there is nuance and shades of gray, you are a first order thinker.
[47:34] That's not an answer, right? And so I wrote to him and I said, what is your personal standard for withdrawing from toxic or abusive relationships? No hate. I'm curious. Thanks.
[47:47] So he replied, there is no standard. And all the people who put stuff in quotes, putting things in quotes, scare quotes, is not an argument. Not an argument. There is no quote standard that I follow, nor is there one that can be broadly applied. what one person considers toxic or abusive, another may not. Right. So everything's subjective. So if everything's subjective, how can I be wrong? How can my listeners be wrong? And how can you go too far? Because everything's subjective, right? So if it's like, what's your favorite color? Well, that's subjective. What is your favorite color? I mean, obviously, objectively, it's navy blue, but what is your favorite color? That is subjective, right? So if something is subjective, how dare you say that someone is wrong? What's your favorite color? Green. You're wrong, right? It makes no sense at all. So if there is no objective standard, then how can he say that anyone is wrong? Again, this is just the mind maze that atheists get into, right? So, he says, the issue here isn't that I don't think one should withdraw from an abusive relationship. No one thinks you telling a spouse to leave their partner to stop getting beaten up is a bad thing.
[49:09] Okay, so he's saying there is no standard that can be broadly applied. It's just the lack of self-knowledge is amazing. I don't know why people don't notice it about themselves, but clearly it's a thing. So he says, there's no standard that can be broadly applied. But you telling a spouse to leave their partner to stop getting beaten up, that's good.
[49:39] How is it possible for people to function in the world and not notice these things? I don't know. I don't know there's no standard but it's always good for a spouse to leave, their partner if they're getting beaten up, all right so he says let's give his fair criticisms right the issue here is that you get paid to stir up drama what does that mean, what does that mean? I get paid to stir up drama. How do I get paid for stirring up drama? I don't know the answer to that.
[50:23] I don't know that anyone does know the answer to that. But there is no answer to that. I think, I think he's, I mean, if I were to, you know, to steel man his position, and I want to be fair, right? Maybe he's got good criticisms. I'm always open to it right so it'd be something like well the more conflict there is in the podcast the more people will want to listen like like it's Maury Povich or um oh gosh who were these people who had these uh crazy shows back in the day uh where people are whacking each other over the head with chairs or something like that right so maybe he's saying that you get paid to stir up drama. Of course, I don't get paid to stir up drama. I take donations for my philosophical work, right? And people call in because they have problems. A doctor, to use an analogy, does not create sick people, at least. So the call-in shows and live call-ins and so on, I mean, we did one, was it just yesterday? I did a spaces on Twitter. People wanted to talk philosophy. Fantastic. I did not set up the call-in show so that people could talk about their personal issues. I set up the call-in show so people could call in and talk to a philosopher and, I think that's a pretty rare opportunity. I think it's a pretty cool opportunity.
[51:47] And people came in and they wanted to talk about their personal issues. There's no requirement for that. In fact, all people who had philosophical, this was when Mike was around for years, this was our policy. Everyone who has a criticism of me goes to the front of the line. And people who want to talk about philosophy, and UPB in particular, which is one of my favorite topics, they go to the front of the line. So i am not out there stirring the pot i am receiving from a neutral standpoint what people want to talk about so if they say i'm really unhappy in my life i'm miserable i've got addictions i'm not getting anywhere i'm i'm hiding in my room i'm i'm socially anxious right whatever right okay well they're talking about this now is it the case that philosophy has nothing to say about that no philosophy has something to say about just about everything because it's the all discipline, right? Physics, you've got to do nature and behavior of matter and energy. Biology, you've got to do nature and behavior of organic matter. But philosophy, overarching. It can do anything and everything any day of the week and twice on Sunday, right?
[52:55] So if people come in and they say, I'm miserable, and I say, what was your childhood like? And they say, oh, I was beaten and bloody by my parents, right? Violation of the non-aggression principle. Morality, virtue, ethics. Assault is bad. Can we say that? Can we say assault is bad? Neglect is also terrible for children. You don't care that I neglect you. Bob doesn't care if I neglect him, but if Bob has locked someone in his basement, that kind of matters. Because neglect for children is catastrophic because they need interaction, they need love, they're kind of locked in the house, they need education, they need moral instruction, they need all of these things from parents and they can't go anywhere else to get them. All right. So he says, I used to listen to you for a long time. Good. So that's encouraging to me, because if somebody has a criticism of me, which is, again, always welcome and great. I want to improve. I don't want to get a sunburn. So fantastic. Then there should be.
[54:15] An example. He's listened to me for a long time. So there has to be a point where he said, oh my gosh, Stef is doing something wrong. That's usually memorable, isn't it? I mean, if you listen to someone for a long time, and then, right? And he says, I've seen you take otherwise inconsequential infractions and blow them out of proportion to the point of trying to convince the caller to cut off their relationship over it. No, that doesn't happen. I don't tell people to cut off their relationships. I tell them to stop lying and be honest in their relationships because I was taught to tell the truth and I was taught that thou shalt not bear false witness.
[54:50] So when i've ever said to someone oh well there was one guy who was drinking himself half to death and had four children and was driving with them if i remember rightly every time he saw his parents and i said you should stop seeing your parents and get to a therapist right away because that was highly dangerous so yeah once once in 20 years when it was and i said the guy said i said very clearly at that point i am breaking my rule here just for you so i don't convince people to cut their relationship off i say go tell the truth to your parents and engage with the therapist, if the relationship can't handle the truth if the parents blow up and get aggressive or whatever it is or whoever it could be parents could be a friend it could be a sibling or a spouse or something like that right or boyfriend girlfriend then the bridge can't handle the truth right can't handle the weight of the truth is that my fault he says because you usually only hear one side of the story, you also make an awful lot of assumptions about the intention of the other person not on the call.
[55:54] So if, and I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh. I mean to laugh because it's so absurd, right? So of course I'm talking to one person. Of course I can't get the other person. Of course I can't. I mean, I've done calls with couples who are going through a lot of conflict and we'll get both sides of it. Sometimes I've done shows where I talk to one person and one side of conflict talk to the other person and then we put the shows together, like four hour shows, two hours with the husband, two hours with, so sometimes I get both sides and they seem to be quite successful. But of course, if somebody's talking to me, about let's say they were beaten as a child okay first of all what is the other side of that story, i'm i'm genuinely curious i i would really mean maybe i'm missing something obvious, maybe i'm missing something obvious what is the other side of the story, for child abuse for neglect for molestation for child rape for child assault for verbal abuse, screaming at a child and calling the child the most appalling names that will stick like a burr in the child's mind for the rest of his or her life. What is the other side of that story?
[57:06] You know, I mean, if I take an extreme example, it's like if a woman says, i've been i was raped and and she's like black eye and and cut lip and her clothes are half torn and so on and you say is it then sensible to say or reasonable irrational or even remotely empathetic to say well i'm just getting one side of the story what is the other side of the story with that kind of assault what is the other side she's got genital damage she's bleeding like what is the other side? Maybe I'm missing something, and I don't mean this to sound overly rhetorical, but what the living hell would be the other side of that story?
[58:00] Anyway, so... And what does it matter what the intention is of the other person? See, intention is just, it's not a magical shield to all immoral actions to say, well, I didn't mean to. Right? I mean, if a husband beats up his, well, I didn't mean to. What does the intention matter? Intention might matter in terms of the degree of punishment, right?
[58:27] Involuntary manslaughter versus manslaughter versus second degree versus first degree, third degree. Like, I didn't mean to, but I was careless. So maybe you don't get punished as much, but you're not off scot-free. You still get punished. You still get three years or five years rather than 20 years or 30 years. So you still get punished. You're still wrong, still immoral. But if a parent beats a child, well, my intention was to make him better. It's like, well, did you read? Did you study? Right? I mean, when I was a kid, if I didn't study for a test, I forgot about it or whatever. If I didn't study for a test, I failed. I wasn't given any excuses. I was supposed to know the difference between mitosis and meiosis and what photosynthesis is. And I was just supposed to know these things. In physics, like, why is it that a plane rises when it is pushed against the wind? And so I had to know these things and I was punished and I could lose a year of my life, right? Because you got held back back in the day, right? You lost a year of your life having to take the course the whole year over again. You'd be the big guy in the back of the class who needs to shave his knuckles when everybody else can't grow a beard to save their life.
[59:52] So if I didn't study for a test, I was severely punished.
[1:00:01] What is a more important test? Some biology test in grade 8 or actual parenting? So you're supposed to study for the test. You're supposed to read up. You're supposed to get some knowledge, get some expertise. He says, much like your assumption of me being religious. I get that. I absolutely get that. I use the word sin. I am not a Christian. I use the word sin. I get that. I mean, so I can totally get where he comes from as far as that goes. So I'm fine with that. When the call doesn't have enough drama for you to monetize, again, there were no live tips for like 90% of my show. When the call doesn't have enough drama for you to monetize, you look for and dig for drama that may have occurred at some point in the past and try to make it a big deal.
[1:00:56] Well, again, I don't know. This is all. And there's no examples of any of this, right? All that being said, I'm a free speech absolutist, and I don't support you being platformed at all. Your banking, YouTube, email, etc. should be reinstated. After all, the best way to remove all doubt is to let them open their mouth. And I said, so you have no standard, but I somehow failed your standard, lord above. And that's, you know, he's saying, there is no standard that I follow, nor is there one that can be broadly applied. It's totally subjective. What one person considers toxic or abusive, another may not. Now, whether somebody perceives something as toxic or abusive is not particularly relevant. So, for instance, somebody who was savagely beaten as a child might grow up to be a masochist and might get some perverse pleasure out of being beaten as an adult. we don't say that that's okay, do we? Do we? Especially, let's say it's a mother who was beaten by her father, ends up marrying a guy who beats her as her husband, and there are children in the house, and she says, I'm fine. I brought it on myself. His dinner was cold. It's not, right? We wouldn't say, oh, that's fine then, because you subjectively don't view it as toxic or abusive. We would say, no, you got assaulted. You got a black eye. You got a cut lip. You got a boxed ear, right? Halle Berry lost half her hearing. In an ear from being assaulted. I don't care if you don't find it a problem. It is a problem, and in particular, because there are children in the house.
[1:02:24] So, he says, there are no standards. Very clearly. There is no standard that I follow, nor is there one that can be broadly applied. There is no standard that I follow. And I say, so you have no standards, but I somehow fail your standard. Lord above. And he says, if you're going to straw man me, at least make a real attempt at it. At no point did I say, you failed my standards. No standards are needed to point out your actions. No standard are needed to point out that you help rip apart relationships.
[1:02:50] So if there are no standards i can't be deficient oh my behavior can't be negative in any way, if there are no standards right if if i come home and i say to my wife oh i'm starving what is there to eat and she says oh i can throw something together in a few minutes do you care what it is and i say i don't care what it is i'm so hungry please just get me something to eat i mean i'm making up this is not how i would act but let's just make it up i have no standards i have no standards, then can I say, the food you brought me has failed my standards. You have done wrong. You have done wrong in getting me this food, right? I mean, there's this sort of joke where a husband says or a boyfriend says to their wife or girlfriend, where do you want to eat? And she says, I don't care. And he says, okay, we'll go to the steakhouse. No, I don't eat the steakhouse. Oh, let's go Mexican. I don't want Mexican, right? It's just kind of funny. I don't care where we eat but then everything you suggest i say no to i mean that's kind of a joke but you can't criticize someone for horribly negative actions and then say there are no standards that i'm applying here and neither are you failing any of my standards because clearly he has a standard of behavior which is not what monetizing drama and encouraging people to rip apart their family he's viewing that as negative behavior but then he's saying there are no standards, I mean that's wild Wild, Just wild.
[1:04:20] Anyway, so I love being corrected, but in this particular case, of course, I tap out fairly quickly. I feel, my personal feeling is like, this is just crazy. You're doing terrible things. What are your standards? I don't have any standards. So you don't have any standards, but I'm failing your standards. I never said I don't have any standards. I never said you were failing. I never said you were failing my standards. It's like, I don't know what to say, right? I genuinely don't know what to say at that point. And I suppose that's sort of the point is to paralyze you in just wildly inconsistent behavior.
[1:05:10] And it's interesting because I haven't been around that kind of stuff too much. I mean, I have it sometimes, but I haven't been around that stuff too much. And there's very little of it as well. And I don't actually mind. I don't mind that at all, because I do find it interesting to try to figure out what is going on. Like, for instance, the guy who I had a call before I went back on X, I had a call with a woman who was doing OnlyFans. And one of the things I said is that you're probably not going to be too happy if because she happened to have giant boobs. and apparently that's a big thing on OnlyFans. And so I said, well, you didn't earn that. So you're probably not going to be too happy with monetizing things you didn't earn, right? And then someone came at me, ton of bricks, fine, whatever, right? And it was like, well, you didn't earn your intelligence or your creative abilities or your eloquence and you're monetizing those. And how's that different? Like apparently giant boobs is the same as my giant lobes. All right, only stiff hands, it is. So that was, yeah, premium.freedomain.com Confessions of an OnlyFans Woman.
[1:06:21] That is a very important show and well worth listening to. And I did responses to that because it was an annoying question, but it was actually very interesting because to be annoyed by an argument is like my instinct. It doesn't mean I'm right, but it means it's going to be a challenge to figure out why, I'm not wrong, right? So it's an interesting, interesting challenge. The response shows 59.84 and 59.85. You know, it's funny. I still remember doing podcast 183 and being like, wow, that's a lot of shows. And now we're, boy, what should I do for 6,000? Right? That's only 16 away. Oh, no. We probably have 16 in the can. In the can. So, all right. I'm so sorry. I'd love to get to these comments on X, but nothing seems to be loading. Nothing seems to be loading and um well now it's completely blank i'm gonna try doing the pop out once more pop out the chat did terrence pop lose his channel i remember seeing him at a conference many years ago uh yeah loading loading loading loading nothing nothing anything.
[1:07:42] Anything anything anything all right uh so i am very very sorry i can't get your questions, i can't get your comments you know what oh i don't have that set up here either oh my gosh oh my we'll figure it out we'll figure it out because i did the live stream the other night And there were comments pouring in, which was great. Oh, somebody's got some comments. Oh, fantastic. Superb. Superb. Isn't it lovely? All right, what have we got here? All right. Um... Does he have the egregious example that is the entire show? Apparently, of course not. Yeah, yeah.
[1:08:37] So, Nush. That's the sound of Indian food leaving my body. Nush says, sorry, that was an unkind. It's a nice new username. Humanity is based on a set of accepted general standards, such as being honest, telling the truth, respect, doing right by others, doing no harm, etc. Likewise, self-justification can protect the opposite of such standards. Well, how such individuals approach and defend their positions. And listen, I appreciate that. I really do. Based on a set of accepted general standards, such as being honest, telling the truth. Well, I'll tell you this. I wasn't deplatformed for lying, my friend. I was deplatformed for telling the truth. And you know people are attacking you for telling the truth when they sling passive aggressive not you of course but they sling passive aggressive or openly aggressive insults at you and they tell you that you're nasty bad wrong blah blah blah but they don't say that you're wrong and here's why so i mean in the example that i gave well you do this and you do this bad thing and you, monetize and you provoke and you tell people it's like there's no examples, in the absence of empirical data.
[1:09:54] All that exists is manipulation oh oh no Nikolai just wanted to say hi from the John Anderson concert in Ocala tonight playing the best of yes playing to the beat of yes oh oh my gosh envy John Anderson what a singer, Holy crap. I mean, the work he did with Vangelis as well. What a singer. Incredible. And a good songwriter, too. O'er the green mountains and o'er the green valleys, I've walked through the country and found me an age. All right. So, go listen to the concert. Catch the replay. Go listen to the concert. So, and I've seen John Anderson, well, yes, twice. All right. How old is my daughter now? Now she is, this is her 17th year.
[1:10:46] She is going to be 17 this year. She's almost done. Almost out of the coop. Almost going to spread her wings and fly away. So, yeah, humanity is based on a set of accepted general standards, which is when people in power want the truth from you, truth is a virtue. When you speak truth to power, you are a bad person and must be punished. But people do not have, or societies don't have, a universal value of truth. Truth is only a value when you hold information that those in power want to get from you. So if some kid gets pushed, who did that? Who saw that? Right? Who did that? And now truth, you got to tell the truth. As a teacher comes out, got to tell the truth. Truth is... Because you have information that somebody in power wants. Now, truth is a virtue. Truth is a value.
[1:11:50] However, if you say to the teacher, you're boring and scary. Oh, and plus you're paid through coercion because my parents have to pay your salary or they go to jail. Will they say, wow, truth. Thank you for telling me the truth, right? So if you rat on your fellow kid, you say, oh, Bob pushed Ahmed into the mud or whatever, right? Thank you for telling the truth. I appreciate that. The truth is good, right? But if you're honest about your experience with the teacher, well, that's just rude. Go to the principal's office, right? So it is negative to tell the truth that is unwanted to those in power. It is a virtue to tell the truth to those in power that they want to receive. There's nothing objective about it at all.
[1:12:34] At all. Yes, freedomain.locals.com. John Anderson, a great singer, one of the highest voices known to man, and you can never do him in karaoke, and nobody covers his songs. Very few. Very few.
[1:12:56] All right. I don't want to bore people. The last thing I want to be is drilling through earth. I don't want to be boring. Now, let me ask you this. Would you, freedomain.locals.com if you want to join a great community. We do private live streams there as well. Donor only live streams or subscriber only live streams. Freedomain.locals.com. Check it out. It's a great community. Plus you get access to like five different AIs that we've created off my material. It's like your own personal Stef conscience in your ass. And trust me, you don't want me there. Maybe you do. Let's leave that open. open question. So I don't want to bore people, genuinely don't want to bore people. Would you, hit me with a why, because, you know, that's basically all philosophy commands me as a whole, hit me with a why. Would you like to know the full argument as to why baby got back, why I'm back on X, and why I asked for reinstatement on YouTube? I don't want to bore people. My daughter made a strong case.
[1:14:07] Would you like to know the reasons why? I'm not offended if you don't. It may be a bit inside baseball. I don't particularly know, but I can certainly give you the case of how I went around making this decision. Yes, what was Izzy's argument? Yes. At premium.freedomain.com, you can look at the perks of subscribing, which I would very much appreciate. Finally, yes, please. Yes, yes, yeah. Okay, but that's over on Locals. We've been doing the Jazz Club thing for a couple of years. I can't see on X. What is happening over on X? Where are my comments? It's like we have a whole bunch of mute people who are miming to their webcams, and it's not translating. All right, we got some yeses. Please say why you returned.
[1:15:04] All right. Absolutely. Always prepared for the argument. Sure. I'm assuming it's not solely because X. All right. Yeah. Yes. Steffi Molly. Okay, fine. I bow to the will of the people and of the listeners, and I will tell you the answer.
[1:15:28] So the answer goes something like this. There were three requirements that i had in my relationship with x one, an apology because they said that i was um gaming the system i was uh engaged in platform manipulation or something like that which i wasn't so i wanted an apology i wanted restitution, and I wanted some reassurance that it wasn't going to happen again. I mean, that's what I've always said to people if you're in difficult or problematic or abusive relationships that you need an apology. And this is what I provide if I do something that hurts someone that's, you know, they're just in right to be upset and I give an apology and restitution of some kind and a commitment by which it's not going to happen again, right? So, you know, if your parent was physically violent to you when you were younger, they should apologize. Some restitution, maybe they can pay for therapy, and they can go to anger management or therapy themselves. There's some indication or guarantee it's not going to happen again, right? So my account was restored, I don't know, a couple of years ago, maybe two years ago, right? So the argument goes something like this.
[1:16:50] Can someone apologize to me from Twitter without exposing themselves to liability? Because an apology is an admission of fault. Now, none of this is legal advice. I'm not a lawyer. This is just my thoughts about the legal system. None of this is anything real or true or valid or legal or anything like that. Just so you know, don't take any advice from me. This is just my rambling thoughts about the legal system. So apologies, particularly in a hyper-litigious America, apologies are admissions of fault. So can I get an apology from a company that didn't just ban me, in my view, unjustly, but banned a bunch of other people unjustly as well, right? So can they apologize to me? Well, they can't give me a public apology, because that would be an admission of fault. And if I can prove monetary damages, whatever it is, then they could be exposing themselves, again, in my amateur non-legal opinion, they could be exposing themselves to legal liability. Now, can they send me a private message saying, don't tell anyone, but really sorry? Again, no. I would assume not, because they can't guarantee what I might or might not do with that private apology.
[1:18:04] So, if it's me and, let's say, hundreds or thousands of other people, if Twitter were to apologize, they could be exposing themselves to a class action lawsuit that could, I don't know, wipe out the company for all I know. Again, just amateur, non-legal opinions, right?
[1:18:25] So the question was, can they actually apologize? The answer, I'm guessing, is not so much, right?
[1:18:41] Now, as far as restitution goes, they cannot provide restitution because restitution could also be considered an admission of guilt or fault from a legal standpoint. Again, just my amateur guess. Now, the assurance that it won't happen again, which is a big one, right? I don't want to go around investing in another platform to have the rug pulled out from under me and years of work vaporized. Which is kind of what happened before in a wide variety of platforms, right? So the case is something like this. Has Twitter, under Elon Musk, has Twitter maintained a significantly robust commitment to free speech?
[1:19:39] It kind of has. So the case is, well, Stef, you're kind of an empiricist. So you have a request for an apology, which they can't do.
[1:19:52] You have a request for restitution, which they can't do. So if you're going to have impossible standards, don't pretend to have those standards, right? I'm like, oh, you know, like if you wrong someone and they say, well, I'll accept your forgiveness when you can jump 20 feet in the air it's like okay just tell me you won't accept, i'll accept your apology if you jump 20 feet in the air or give me 10 trillion dollars right okay then just say just say when hell freezes over right that was an old statement when i was a kid and also i guess when the eagles got back together so i'll accept your apology when hell freezes over it's like okay then you're just not accepting an apology right so if i'm asking for something which again in my amateur non-legal opinion they cannot provide it's a good case, that's a good case right don't ask for the impossible now as far as it not happening again has twitter maintained for the last couple of years of post elon a good commitment a very good commitment to free speech and i would say outside of the platforms founded and solely driven by a commitment to free speech which would be places like gab and other places right of the major social media platforms has twitter maintained a commitment to free speech.
[1:21:20] And the answer is yeah is it perfect well no because you never know what's going on behind the scenes but you know one of the things that was quite and i think there's a lawsuit involved in this at the moment. One of the things that was really quite powerful was when Elon Musk.
[1:21:42] Was faced with a consortium advertiser boycott, a sort of cinched together advertiser boycott, and he basically said, fuck you to that, right? I'm not selling out for money. I will take the hit for my principles. As someone who has taken severe body blows for my principles, it's hard not to admire that and to feel that there's a confluence in spirit there. I also just know demographically, I did the truth about free speech presentation many years ago. I know that demographically, it's not a certain thing, but it's a bit of an indication that white males in particular tend to be free speech absolutists, like three quarters of white males are free speech absolutists. So there's that factor as well.
[1:22:43] So my daughter was like, well, you're an empiricist. Has he not provided evidence of integrity in this matter? You have years now that you can look at, dad, to see if he's serious about this. And if he has shown a commitment to free speech, then you have a reasonable guarantee that it's not going to happen again. Do you have a perfect guarantee? No, but there's no perfect guarantees about anything in life. I expect the next breath to occur, but I could have an aneurysm. Fingers crossed. I know some people fingers crossed the other way. So don't have a standard that people cannot achieve.
[1:23:31] And if you are expecting consistently good behavior, consistently virtuous behavior, and somebody has manifested and displayed that for the last couple of years, as an empiricist, what else are you looking for? And, of course, the good that can be done by reaching more people with peaceful parenting, that's consequentialist, so that's not any deciding factor. But it's not unimportant. It's not irrelevant as a whole. Does that, I mean, that's most of it. Again, I don't want to go into all of the brain-numbing details as a whole, but that's a general thought. Does that make sense as a whole? Let me know if it does. Let me know if it doesn't. There are, of course, still bands. I get that for sure. But these are the arguments, and let me know if that makes sense.
[1:24:46] Elon even changed the name of the platform you got banned from. Total different free speech standards. Yes, it does make sense, says Chris. And let me just go refresh over here on X. And I've always said, like, I will bow to reason. I will bow to reason. I have about a reason. She made a case that I could not overthrow. You know, I mean, as she said, Dad, is it words or deeds, right? If he'd made promises, that's just words. But he's got deeds. He's got years of supporting free speech under his belt.
[1:25:48] So, am I going to say, no, no, what matters is the form, not the content. What matters are the words, not the deeds. It's like, okay, but then you're a Platonist. You're a language-based subjectivist. You're not a rational empiricist. Can't argue. I mean, I could, but it would be kind of sad, right?
[1:26:13] So or i was just spending too much time hanging around her and she wanted to throw me onto twitter i'm just kidding makes sense with the change of company ownership the new ownership cannot functionally apologize for the old regime uh not exactly true because you when you buy a company you inherit the liabilities and the assets right but the empirical evidence of free speech support is more important, like that's an evidence of a commitment to free speech that goes above and beyond any verbal commitment I might get. So the demand for apologies and restitution was legally, in my humble opinion, obviously non-legal opinion, impossible. And the accumulated evidence of a commitment to free speech on the part of X is empirical proof of their commitment. Does Izzy Haffer show any interest in philosophy? I wouldn't expect that from someone in their mid-teens, but I will say that she's really good. Thank you, Durbin, for the donation. freedomain.com slash donate if you would like to help out that.
[1:27:25] So let's see here. Sorry, let me just get to the comments from X, and I appreciate that. I hope that was interesting as a whole. Uh sebastian says it's not an absolute guarantee as people still get banned on x but the vast majority of those people are irrational unlike you uh izzy is awesome oh seven izzy i don't know what that means but i i like that uh i appreciate that were you approached by any free speech networks i'm not sure what that means i mean i'm on gab and mines and other places like that, william says makes sense but i do not get the impression youtube is nearly as accommodating free speech why uh youtube i think i already answered that, not to be too coy but i think i did oh seven is a salute emoticon oh thank you i appreciate that i appreciate that she seems to be a very bright young lady glad you're back well um you have her to thank for the most part and maybe a little bit on the side my commitment to reason at all costs. I mean, I was ambivalent about coming back, but the case was made, the Gondor calls for aid, and Izzy lights the fire, and I find my way back. So that is the story.
[1:28:48] All right uh makes sense thanks for the explanation you're welcome owen i appreciate i appreciate that and what are we hour and a half god at time philosophy is like this time dilation blink and it's gone like i when i was doing the um the uh twitter spaces or the x spaces yesterday i was like just you know flies flies unlike those math class you know the clock seems to be either freezing or slightly going in reverse no slow motion sickness.
[1:29:25] All right any other last questions comments issues challenges problems, um the opposite of merillion do give me your problems hey i'm late what did i miss lol just kidding don't give me a facial twitch don't give me a facial yeah the twitter spaces chat will come out tomorrow to the main feed. But you can only do it off a phone. You can't even do it off a tablet. And I tried putting in a headset for my phone to get better audio, but it just didn't take. So anyway, we'll figure it out. We'll figure out a way to get better audio, at least from me. Are the Swifties holding a grudge? Yes, based upon my Taylor Swift tweet. Well, of course, Taylor Swift is like a canary in the coal mine for infertility. She just, at this point, it would be almost a betrayal of her uh fan base to have kids all right let me just get back to your yeah by the fruits you shall know good trees from bad trees good trees bring forth good fruit bad trees bring forth bad fruit yes yes for sure all right uh let me just i'm going back here.
[1:30:44] All right they can't practically apologize i believe that is accurate yeah i think that's right, i think that's right.
[1:31:00] After dozens of people made failed attempts to convince you, we've got to know how Izzy did it. Yeah, and yeah, she's good. Heading for a prayer meeting, what can I pray for you tonight? I would like to get the YouTube channel back, even if it's read-only. I think that there's a lot of great information there, and in particular the comments. I mean, it's a big Library of Alexandria testament to the state of philosophy in the early 21st century, so I'd like to kind of get that back as a whole for people to see, so on and on. Thanks to Elon for holding a high standard the last couple of years too. Amen to that. Very true. We're glad you're back timing is impeccable a wizard does not arrive early does not arrive late he arrives precisely when he means to blah blah blah all right all right my staff is bigger all right um let me just get to your other comments how often do you plan to do twitter spaces will you be integrating it into your schedule i would do i would do i would do eight Yeah, that's a day. Twitter spaces, they're great. But yes, I will integrate it into my schedule.
[1:32:02] It's always tough to know because it's a worldwide audience, although most of it's centered in North America. It's a worldwide audience. So I wanted, that's why I do the 11 a.m. shows on Sunday for the cheese eating surrender monkeys. No, for the Europeans. Love the Europeans. So, but I will, I could do the Twitter spaces every day. They are a blast. Especially if I get somebody who really disagrees with me and really goes for me. It's good. But it is that resistance that raises the testosterone levels even beyond the old faithful geyser I currently have coming out of my nether regions.
[1:32:36] So I will try to do them as often as possible until I goad people into coming out. Come at me live, bro. Come at me live. That's the best. Because, you know, then, you know, again, I'm not saying that. Would you go on at whatever? I mean, I think I might be interested. Where do they record?
[1:32:58] I used to travel a lot. It's not like I put down roots exactly, but my ass has turned into a giant placid mushroom of beanbag comfort. Sorry, John, if you don't mind me asking. I could probably look it up, but where do they record? Because, I mean, I think I'd want to be in person on the cleavage tsunami me known as the round table. I love these phrases. I enjoy them as much as you do, and I don't know where they're coming from either. All right.
[1:33:45] Have you committed to a completion date for the novel in progress no I haven't but um I'm at about 45 000 words so I'd like to think I am I'd like to think I'm a half done but I'm probably only a third, did you see JD Vance joined Blue Sky and got banned in like 20 minutes they unbanned his account now after people had a good laugh so it's funny it's called blue sky right so blue sky all the colors right the sun is white and by the way if it wasn't for the sound deadening properties of the void of space we would all go deaf in a moment from the sun's massive thermonuclear explosion forever and ever amen so the light is all light right coming from the sun but the the atmosphere filters it out so that it looks just blue to us right so the fact that it filters out a rainbow and has only one color based upon your perspective is a perfect name it's a perfect blue sky is a perfect name because they're taking all the rainbow all the diversity and there's only one perspective that is allowed.
[1:34:58] Uh, Frida says, I loved the callers on YouTube because of the comments. People commenting were often answered back by the actual caller. It's like comment section was the epilogue to the call. I'm hoping the YouTube page comes back. Yeah, there was really great stuff. Really great stuff. I am Molly Meme the White and I return to X now at the turning of the tide. All shall pass. Uh, you should go on Robert Barnes' sidebar show. I know, I think I've done shows with Robert Barnes in the past. One more question. I've heard whispers of a meetup in July. Yes, of a free domain.locals.com. I asked Rock, it looks like whatever is out of Santa Barbara, California. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Fascinating. Fascinating. All right. Interesting. Interesting. I know that Andrew Wilson does it remotely sometimes, right?
[1:35:54] Jacob hansen is a fan of the show of thoughtful faith show you could have a great chat i'm, interested interested i gotta tell you i mean it's so nice to sit down and just, jawbone with people about philosophy that all the setup it takes to do all the research prep and setup it takes to do split screen combos i'm not saying i'm lazy, maybe i am yeah maybe i am okay yeah i'll do it because i don't want to be lazy I don't want to be lazy. I was in the Golden State. Yeah, of course, I did a whole, gosh, what was it, five hours documentary called Sunset in the Golden State about California. Well, at least none of that came true. Yeah, they're in Cali. What is the writing on your cup? Oh, that's a fine question. The writing on my cup is Axton Diner from Atlas Rutt. Yeah, people are like, I loved your Fall of Rome presentation. It's like, yeah, remember when you could see the Fall of Civilization on a YouTube channel rather than, say, out the window? So vivid, so lifelike. The graphics are incredible. It's 5D. I can smell it. That's how good the presentation is outside my window of the Fall of the West. I can smell it.
[1:37:20] I don't want to extend, but I don't want to end. uh andrew wilson mentioned on your feed he would love to speak to you would be interested uh sure i'm i very much like andrew and his wife rachel is a delight so um i think that would be that would be interesting that would be interesting, the imagination is funny it makes a cloudy day sunny, Makes the bees think of honey Just like I think of you Go listen to the album 20 by Harry Connick Jr. It's way old by now, but it's a really good album. All right.
[1:38:07] Speaking of Libertarian Party of New Hampshire Retreated your post, adding YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Stef, did you see the videos of the illegal immigrants picking radishes versus the chad radish machine harvester? Yeah, I mean, it's really, it's really, it's really sad. I'm glad to see you recovered from your chin reduction surgery so fast. Yes, I did the chad meme. Somebody grafted my face on the chad meme. Oh, well. So, what was it? Yeah, he did, they did the chad meme, right? What was the angle what was the angle.
[1:38:53] Something like that oh no i've lost my shirt see philosophy man you'll just lose your shirt it's so tough being de-platformed oh my god now it's inside out oh no i can't possibly put a shirt on, That's inside out. Impossible. Because my wife would... Happened. Half aneurysm. All right. Let's see here. What else? Any other last comments? Horror at my 58-year-old chest? Let's see here. Reload. Sounds a bit more sinister. They'll take the shirt off your back, I tell you. Yeah, gambling will do that. Better than OnlyFans. Thank you. Professor James says, so absolutely delighted to see Stefan again. I have years of pleasant memories just of walking around my hometown with his voice purring sweet logic in my ear. Magnificent. Yeah, somebody was suggesting that I should do ASMR videos because my voice is apparently extremely soothing. Sorry, that was a little sinister. ASMR, I'm coming to get you. Third member of right said, Fred, I'm too sexy for my shirt. So sexy it hurts.
[1:40:09] Is this is this this is the part of the show where all reason gets tossed out of the window and i just start wrapping and attaching a little propellers to my nipples and making myself into a triplane all right uh just one last roll here in case there i do it oh it's done if it's a little bit behind and i'm sorry of course if your phone brightness is up i probably just blinded you with my pasty white middle-aged form.
[1:40:39] All right. I'm very psyched. You've got great energy and it's contagious. Got your candy necklace. That's right, from my Eminem one. Thespian meets philosopher cracks me up. I appreciate that.
[1:40:53] All right. Well, I think we've had a great show. I think I'll leave on the topless rent boy sexy stuff and have yourself a glorious evening. Of course, if you appreciate the show, you find it helpful, what it is that I do, freedomain.com slash donate, hugely appreciated. FDRURL.com slash locals, FDRURL.com slash locals. You can sign up for subscriptions. You get access to massive amounts of bonus podcasts, all the spicy stuff. We do private live streams. And you get access to a whole bunch of StefBot AIs. So have yourself... Yeah, so I did watch some of the Tucker Ted Cruz thing. You can watch it in the replay. I talked about it at the beginning. Have yourself a glorious evening, my friends. Lots of love from up here, unless you're north of me, in which case it's from down here in the crotch groin region. So you need to bathe. So have yourself a glorious evening. I will see you Friday night, 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And lots of love from up here and thank you for your incredibly kind and warm welcome back. It's great to be here and thanks again Izzy for the irrefutable argument of the gods. All right. Thanks everyone. Have a glorious evening.
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